Arequipa, Peru by Kev

10.11.2025. Ah buses! They suck. I have not travelled by bus in Australia for a loooooong time, and hopefully won't for a loooooong time, or ever again. The buses here are more comfortable than any I have ridden in before. In my opinion they still suck, but they're kinda your only option in Peru. There are some planes, but we are trying to travel as cheaply as we can. While we were at the bus depot we bought tickets for our next destination. Ok then, time to grab a taxi. We went out the front and while Mel was loading up our stay on GMaps I noticed 4-5 taxis take off all of a sudden. What's all this then? Haha here comes a traffic police on a motorcycle. Those guys obviously weren't licensed taxis. I am absolutely positive we have ridden in some unlicensed taxis, and while it is advised to never do that, we haven't had any trouble, yet. I reckon all the taxis that are left are legit, so let's grab one of those. Straight to our stay, and only 10soles, way cheaper than Lima. We met the people at our apartment and they showed us in. An older couple who seemed really nice and the place was great. One of our best stays. We'd had another roughish night, so we mucked around a bit and rested. Later we went out and grabbed some lunch and then supplies. Onto tomorrow.
11.11.2025. Today I had organised a walk around to see the city. The first stop though was a tour agency. We'd decided to do a tour out to Colca canyon, and we only have a couple days so let's get that sorted. In the end we booked a two day tour, as the 1 day tour started at 3am and was jam packed. They fit the same amount into the 2 day tour but you just have more time for everything. That's sorted, let's continue our walking tour. First stop, the cathedral, which was about 100m away from the tour agency. When we went in they told us the cathedral was closed, but you could book a tour with a guide through the cathedral and its museum. Fine, let's do the bloody tour with the bloody guide. Turned out pretty good. The guide was funny and switched between English and Spanish very easily. We saw lots of gold religiousy stuff in the museum. The highlight was getting to see the back of the largest pipe organ in South America. 1218 pipes, 12 metres high and only 3 people who know how to play it. We walked around the back of it on our way up to the roof. They had replaced the back with glass so you could see most of the pipes, some were made of wood. We then went up onto the roof, where we saw a massive bell. Weighing in at 5tonnes and rung with a huge 200kg clapper. The kids got to hit all the bells lightly with a small steel ball. I couldn't imagine being up there when they rang the big one. We walked back down and headed out to the next stop. We wanted to see the mummy Juanita. A 12 year old Incan girl who was sacrificed and placed atop the Ampato volcano back in the 15th century. She was found in 1995 after an eruption melted some of the snow at the top. Unfortunately Juanita was away for restoration or maintenance or something, so there was a replica. None of us really wanted to see a replica so we gave it a miss. Nevermind, on to the next thing. We headed to a still operating monastery, where nuns still do their thing. The place was huge, it took way longer to visit than we thought it would and there was so much information. Young girls would be placed here by their families. They had to pay 100 pesos and bring 25 items with them. Once they were inside, that was pretty much it, there was no getting out. There were lots of rooms for the nuns, called “cells”, yep cells. Sounds nice doesn't it? Every cell had its own kitchen, bed, table and a few other things for them. Basically if you could afford to pay more, your daughter could have a bigger room with more stuff, while secluded from the rest of society. My favourite discovery here was a water filter, made from volcanic stone. It was shaped like a funnel, with no hole, and the water would slowly trickle its way through the porous rock. We stopped and watched for a bit. One drop would pass through about every 19-20 seconds. That's the kinda thing I'm interested in. I always wonder how and when did people discover this sort of thing. We had taken so long in the monastery that it was well past lunch time. Luckily they have a cafeteria here. Our visit after lunch got a little faster, as we were getting over it. As I said the place is huge and there's lots of info. After that we went to Llama world! Which was kinda small, but it did have some Llamas and alpacas. We got to feed them and didn't get spit at once. There were some posters with info on the way in. I did not know that all the Llamas, alpacas, vicuñas and the rest are related to camels. Camelids they are all known as, originating in Northen-America, they moved both west and south, evolving as they went. We visited the shop after, it's bigger than the museum, and bought some scarves for the kids. I know it takes a lot of effort to make this stuff, but bloody hell it was expensive. After the excitement of Llamas had died down, we walked to a bar in the oldest neighbourhood in Arequipa. A bar called Now Here. I thought it was Nowhere, but we worked out, it was now here. A couple of their craft brews later we headed back home. That's it see ya tomorrow.
12.11.2025. Our two day tour starts today. We got picked up by the bus and headed out. Traffic in Arequipa is quite terrible. It took us a while to get out of town and on our way. We'd been travelling for about an hour when everything stopped. Apparently there was an accident during the night and they were still cleaning it up or investigating or I don't know. We were stopped on the highway, and so was everyone else. We got going again after sitting there for about an hour. We had several stops today, starting with one to see the vicuña. Several other stops along the way, most of them to see Llamas or alpacas. Tourist stops our guide called them. We either stopped to take a photo with an animal, or we stopped in a small town square to see some dancing or buy shit. After lunch at a buffet, an expensive buffet that was not included in the tour price, where Andrew ate so much I thought he was gonna pop, we headed to some hot springs for a soak. Now this is what I like. Soaking in hot water like a big piece of potato. Then I saw a woman in our group come back with some beers. Yep that's me. I grabbed one for Mel and I and my experience only got better. We spent a little over an hour at the springs, then we got dropped at our hostel. We later went to a restaurant that had some local music and dancing. Mel took Emma back early as she was knackered. Andrew and I stayed until the end. Andrew didn't want to leave, he had a ball and at the end got up and joined a “conga” line that finished with people doing the Macarena. Couldn't wipe the smile off his dial. We walked back and hit the sack. More stuff to do tomorrow.
13.11.2025. Up at 5:30 so we could have breakfast before getting picked up again at 6:30. Today we're off to see Colca Canyon. The second deepest canyon in the world and home to the Andean Condor. Of course we had some stops on the way. We had thought one stop was to see an active volcano that was smoking. The stop was really just another “tourist” stop in a town centre, where we saw girls who should be in school dancing for the tourists and lots of trinkets for sale. Now we're off to the canyon. As we got closer, Andrew and I got off the bus with the guide and did a small hike to the viewpoint. Mel and Em stayed on the bus as Em wasn't feeling great. We met up with them at a big viewpoint. There were people everywhere. We were all there in the hopes of seeing a condor. Once it has warmed up they are supposed to leave the nest and ride the thermals looking for food. Condors are scavengers and don't hunt their prey. Someone sang out and we all looked in a certain direction. There's one! It flew away from us at first, then circled back around and sticking close to the side of the canyon, flew directly above us. It was a huge bird! They have a wing span of 3-3.5metres. It later flew past us again and away, off looking for food. We never saw another after that, but I assume, once they take off they have a look around the nest, then go in search along the canyon. They may have to look all day to find something to scavenge. Back on the bus, we had a couple more stops. One stop we tried cactus fruit, bloody sour! Once blended and mixed into a pisco sour it was quite nice. We had a stop at another town centre, pretty over this by now, then stopped again for lunch. Now it was time to head back. We got back to Arequipa just after 4pm. Back at the room, we rested. It had been a long two days for everyone. We packed our bags again tonight, as we're off on another bus tomorrow. Dinner and bed.
14.11.2025. Morning came too soon, I was having a good sleep. Got up and made breakfast for everyone. The guy came to get the keys to the apartment at 8:30 and we headed out in search of a taxi. We waved a couple down, but once we said “terminal terestre” they said something in Spanish and buggered off. Mel had the idea that maybe they weren't licensed taxis and didn't want any trouble like the guys the other day. That would explain it. A taxi did eventually pick us up and take us to the bus depot, thankfully. We already had our tickets booked from when we first arrived, but we went to the counter to check with them anyway. They took our tickets and printed out new ones. Our bus was for 10:45, now it's 11:15. Eh it's only half an hour, little did I know that was just the start. We sat and waited, because you know, we're always early. Finally it was time to hop on the bus, yay. It's not especially hot here, but when a bus full of people doesn't have a/c, you're not in for a good time. The trip is supposed to take around 6hrs, and hopefully it will cool off soon enough. Arequipa is a city that is growing and fast. Which means there's a lot more traffic without the necessary infrastructure upgrades. In other words, the traffic was horrendous and it took us 2hrs just to get out of the city. Alright now that we're on the highway we'll get going. Somewhere near the middle of our journey, the bus stopped. It just stopped on the highway. Oh crap, maybe there's another accident. We sat for a few minutes, then the driver opened the door and turned off the motor. Oh this just keeps getting better. Well let's get out and stretch our legs and see what we can see. Cars, trucks and buses is what we can see. All lined up along the highway until they disappear from view. I was thinking “that's it, we're spending the night here”. Thankfully, it was more like 30-45mins, not the whole night. Not much more after that. It got dark and cold. We finally made it to Puno at around 8:30. Found a taxi and got dropped at our stay. The lady was there waiting for us thankfully so we went straight in. Emma has been a bit crook so she went to bed. I made a quick dinner with what I had in my “kitchen” bag. Potato, cabbage and lentils. It turned out pretty good, or maybe we were just starving. Bed time, see ya in the next blog.
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